Holy crap. Rebels has a new Big Bad, and it’s an old Big Bad—Grand Admiral Thrawn, the brilliant Imperial military commander who took over the remnants of the Empire in the old Expanded Universe, as revealed in the very first EU novel trilogy by Timothy Zahn.

You can’t swing a dead womprat on a Star Destroyer without hitting a terminated Imperial officer, Force-choked to death by Darth Vader for some failure or another. But who deserved their termination the most? These dozen would-be heroes of the Empire, that’s who.

When a franchise is around for four decades, it can get impossibly unwieldy to try and grasp its lore — and Star Wars canon is no exception. Here's a guide to the origins of Star Wars Canon, the rise and fall of one of the most prominent Expanded Universes in fiction, and where the saga stands with Disney today.

The pilot for Star Wars Rebels is by no means perfect. It's hampered by funny-looking character designs, and it's proto-Rebellion crew isn't quite compelling yet. But it does have a sense of adventure that reminds us of A New Hope—and that's enough to keep us interested.

You can watch the action-packed first seven minutes of Star Wars Rebels below. It's all classic Star Wars, including a crowded marketplace, gun battle with Stormtroopers, and speeder bike chase. And nothing could be more Star Wars than introducing a new, slightly different type of Stormtrooper to turn into an…